Business rates issues

The FSB has warned that cuts at the Valuation Office Agency could leave companies exposed to unfair business rates bills and an uphill struggle to overturn mistakes.The agency’s frontline casework teams are being merged from 11 regional teams into four, while its customer service, property data collection and valuation and technical advice teams will be national not regional divisions.The FSB said previous cuts at the agency contributed to an “increase in mistakes in assessments and unresolved appeals”.It also questioned how the agency would deal with the backlog of 224,000 appeals in the system relating to the revaluation of business rates in 2010.